Illuminata: My “Hero/Villain” Prompt!
Papilio had helped Lila for so long; repaying a certain “favor” was more than the least Lila could do.
In honesty, Lila hadn’t even known about the battle at the Agreste Mansion. She wouldn’t have cared at all, really - while the anger management classes she had been… “advised” to take were helping in general life (not to mention helping her curb the lies she used to tell), she still wasn’t happy with Ladybug. Heaven knows Papilio had tried to get the two on good terms - he had been the one that politely advised her to take those classes after showing up to check on her in a swarm of butterflies making the shape of a human after Volpina (he did this with everyone, apparently).
She’d also backed off of Adrien, her reason being that the two weren’t suited for each other. She had come to realize that her feelings for him were merely infatuation; after all, infatuation is merely being in love with the idea of someone. She liked to think of herself as a good person, and while she accepted that she wasn’t a good person right now, she would work hard to try and get towards that ideal.
When she felt the butterfly touch her new necklace (the old one held too many bad memories, and was thrown out), she wasn’t sure whether to curse out Hawkmoth in Italian, French or English. However, when she heard Papilio’s voice instead, that changed.
Hello there, Lila.
Hello, Mr. Bowtie. The thought held no malice - after a week’s worth of talking with each other (whether for help when Papilio was in civilian form or chatting as Papilio), the two had become good friends.
That’s Mr. Fettucine to you, and you know it. Anyway, you’re just the friend I could use right now! There’s an attack at Agreste Mansion, and Chat Noir and Ladybug have been struggling on this one. I have an odd job for you as well as battling against the akuma for this time; accept the powers of Halucinatio and I will explain all.
While Lila and Ladybug were not the greatest of friends, Lila agreed to take on the mantle of “Halucinatio.”
Fine, I’ll help. What are my powers?
Your powers are similar to Volpina, but you can only make clones of yourself in this form. The exchange is that your clones can make physical contact and fight with you. Your flute is now a wand - aim and fire it at anywhere but a person, and you can create an illusion. You can also shoot out fireballs when in combat, as well as gain the ability to teleport short distances to dodge. Be warned, however - using either of those two abilities make all your clones disappear! When you considered the differences between him and Hawkmoth, Papilio was much more creative on the powers of his comites in comparison to the idea and design of the comes in general.
One last thing, Lila. Your “comes minutus” is in your new necklace - it’s very pretty, by the way. Anyway, are you ready, Halucinatio? Papilio gave everyone a last check. Sure, he made sure that any time a comes was defeated, his comites minuti came in a giant swarm from the sky to save any depowered comites from harm, but the ability to do this didn’t stop him from being a little too concerned for the safety of his comites nonetheless. Some folks thought he worried too much about his comites, but they’d never been in the heat of battle before.
Nobody knew the real truth behind his worries - not Lila, not his previous comites, not even Ladybug or Chat Noir! The reason behind that’s a story for another day, however…
Let's do this! Her response was confident - it was not the old and mendacious Lila’s prideful confidence, but the new and kind-in-the-good-way Lila’s just confidence.
Good luck, Halucinatio. Papilio’s voice faded out, sending his power in to transform Lila into Halucinatio!
The ears and tail of Volpina were nonexistent on Halucinatio; however, the ends of her hair were colored to look like the ears. The flute, as promised, was now a wand, and it felt somewhat warm in her hands. At once, Lila took off for the Agreste Mansion, being informed of the aforementioned “odd job” Papilio had in mind as she went.
The Collector grumbled to himself about the strength of his enemies. He was doing fine on his own against the two -how did they win every time? Their battle style seemed like it was missing something - no, someone. But why would that be? Hawkmoth hadn’t been informed of a third Miraculous awakened. Perhaps he should ask Nooroo later…
Ahh, that would explain it, Collector thought. I should do my research next time - if there's a next time. Is there a third Miraculous out there somewhere? No, it couldn’t be - who could fight without me noticing their power? Is it a non-Miraculous ally? It can’t be one of the big 7, and the Zodiac would have been noticed by me as well!
Collector was broken out of his thoughts by a miniature army of redesigned Volpinas breaking through the door. Swarming him at once, he was overwhelmed by them, and before he knew it, his book was crushed and the akuma was freed.
One purification and general day-saving later from Ladybug, followed by the two major Miraculous wielders leaving the scene, a curious Gabriel “innocently” asked the army of “Volpinas” who had given them their powers.
“It couldn’t have been m-Hawkmoth; he can’t use more than one akuma at once. Who brought Volpina back?”
One Halucinatio, appearing behind him and making her clones disappear, told him the answer. “Have you never heard of Papilio?”
Not giving away too much surprise, Gabriel responded “Not really - I don’t pay much attention to superhero-based news. Usually, I’m too busy with work.” I should have, Gabriel thought to himself, and it’s time that changed.
When Halucinatio was eventually detransformed back into Lila and sent home courtesy of Gabriel, he didn’t notice the comes minutus flying into his mansion in order to spy on him. He’d been way too much in thought about this new enemy of his.